Session Law

Chapter 229
AN ACT REQUIRING COLLEGE STUDENTS IMMUNIZATION AGAINST MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same,
as follows:

SECTION 1.
Chapter 76 of the General Laws is hereby amended by
inserting after section 15C the following section:-

Section 15D. No full-time or part-time undergraduate or graduate student
shall, except as hereinafter provided, be registered at a private or public
college or university or public or private secondary school, which provides
housing or licenses housing such as fraternities and sororities, except upon
presentation of a medical certificate at least 2 weeks before matriculation
that
the student has been immunized against meningococcal disease; but a student may
be registered at the institution upon certification made, in writing, by a
physician who has personally examined the student and in whose opinion the
physical condition of the student is such that his health would be endangered
by the immunization, or the student has signed a waiver stating that the
student has received information provided by the school or the health
department containing the information required by this section. A parent or
guardian of a student less than 18 years of age shall sign the waiver. The
department of public health shall promulgate rules and regulations for
enforcement of this
section and in developing the waiver forms, which shall contain information
about the risks and dangers of meningococcal disease. In the absence of an
emergency or epidemic of disease declared by the department of public health,
no student who states in writing that immunization would conflict with his
religious beliefs shall be required to present the medical certificate in order
to be admitted to the institution. This section shall not require an
institution to provide the vaccine or the expense for the vaccine against
meningococcal disease.

SECTION 2.
This act shall apply to a students' initial enrollment
in an institution of higher education in or after August of 2005.